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Quick HitBrandon CampbellWednesday June 27th, 2012, 1:48pm

Chicagoans Decry Use Of TIF Dollars For West Loop Office Park (VIDEO)

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s recent decision to chip in about $30 million for
a subway tunnel and a 1.5-acre public park to be built alongside a new
West Loop office building has got some Chicago residents upset.

On
Tuesday morning about 70 community activists marched to the Mayor’s
Office from the proposed site of the 45-story, $300 million River Point
development near Lake and Canal Streets. The group said they want the
city’s money used for parks in the city’s poorest neighborhoods, not in
Chicago’s thriving downtown area.

Luz Hueramo, a young mother from the Brighton Park neighborhood, said Kelly Park near her home needs nearly $3 million in repairs.

“The
city says there is no money for this type of community project,”
Hueramo said. “However, this plan for a corporate plaza would cost an
estimate of $29.5 million in TIF money. It is not fair that TIF money is
being used in areas where it is not needed.”

Tax Increment
Financing, or TIF, is a source of taxpayer dollars set aside for use by
the mayor and the aldermen as corporate subsidies or to fund public
projects. Originally designed by the state to spur economic growth only
in blighted or low-income areas, the TIF program seems to have fallen short of that goal.

Even Mayor Emanuel has proposed a TIF reform project, though that’s been shelved for now. Emanuel has also defended spending the $29.5 million on the subway and park telling the Chicago Tribune that the public space will be open to everyone and the project will generate both tax money and construction jobs.

But in a separate Tribune
article a spokesperson for Hines, the development company behind the
project, said the demand for office space “is not strong enough today.”
Greg Van Schaack, senior vice president of Hines’ Chicago office,
said otherwise the company would begin work on its next project: a $1
billion office and apartment complex to be built across the river from the
River Point development.

Amisha Patel, executive director of Grassroots
Collaborative, which organized Tuesday's rally, wrote a letter to the mayor that the group delivered to Emanuel’s office before leaving the
building. In the letter, Patel requested a meeting with the mayor and
asked for an end to the LaSalle Central TIF district.

“The money
is being siphoned away to be given to downtown developers to build
skyscrapers, to build corporate plazas. That’s not what makes sense with
our money. These are hard-earned taxpayer dollars that should be going
absolutely to invest in local neighborhoods,” she said outside the
Mayor’s Office.

Patel added that she supports TIF reforms if they
include setting up protocols for tracking spending, accountability, and
the long-term effects of TIF-funded projects.